Aaron Swartz faced federal charges after downloading roughly 70 gigabytes of academic articles from JSTOR. The charges carried potential penalties of up to 35 years in prison, a $1 million fine, and asset forfeiture, according to the post. Swartz died by suicide before his case went to trial. The post identifies him as a co-creator of RSS and characterizes his intended use of the material as dissemination and archival of knowledge. The post contrasts Swartz’s prosecution with Meta’s alleged use of torrents to obtain 80 terabytes of books for AI training. Meta faces litigation over the alleged book downloads, while the post says its AI models remain commercially active. The writer argues that the difference in legal and financial consequences reflects unequal treatment by the legal system. The writer also contends that Meta uses the material to support proprietary AI products, and predicts that any eventual penalty will likely be financial rather than a restriction on the company’s AI business. The post expresses anger over Swartz’s treatment and calls attention to the power held by technology billionaires.

Apple's lawsuit against OpenAI involved a miscommunication where their outside lawyers emailed the wrong person due to a mix-up with two similar Asian last names. Apple initially claimed they contacted OpenAI in February but later admitted the error after it was pointed out.